Chapter 10

In the light of the Corona crisis, my country had decided to extend the measures until the end of April. After that we have something called "May Vacation" which starts at the end of April and leads into the beginning of May. That means that as of now, i have 4 more weeks at home.

In this time I've been binging Clone wars again and get more excited about everything surrounding that everyday. Ahsoka's Arc is just everything. So much Character building.. I can't even.


Ahsoka stood there, feeling very tense, watching all the slaves down in the arena. They were supposed to wait it out, but it was honestly hard for Ahsoka. Seeing all these people. They were all introduced. Why? Ahsoka didn't know. What did it add to the auction? Slaves were nameless to their masters. Anakin had told her that. Throwing their names out there would do nothing.

Suddenly a thought entered her mind. Were they stalling? For what? Oh, Ahsoka really didn't like this. Everything was now uncertain. Unclear. There were too many unknown factors for her to complete this mission without doubts. She again made eye contact with her teammates, but they didn't really seem to care for the changes that much. That, or they were just hiding their unease very, very well.

Ahsoka was on her own, then. Maybe it was the Force, giving her a warning. But she was sure the others wouldn't listen. They'd already shown that.

Then Lorey gave the signal. It was time to move. Kriff. Everyone moved into position towards the guards on their levels. They were supposed to take them out simultaneously.

Ahsoka got to her guards and waited for the second signal. And there it was. Lorey moved forward and attacked her guards. Ahsoka decided against a head-on assault. She moved in front of them. "Sleep," she said. The guard fell on the ground. Others came at them, but Ahsoka quickly used the same trick. In a matter of seconds all the guards in her aisle were down. She checked in with the others and saw Dara had some struggles.

Ahsoka checked if there was anyone who could see her, only to come up negative. She turned back to Dara, who was fighting two levels up from her. She pushed two guards away from the girl with the Force. Then she saw Jax and Lorey jump down into the arena and she followed. Thea was supposed to secure the King. But then that sleemo decided to speak up.

"Would you look at that. Our rebels have made themselves known. Welcome."

Ahsoka stiffened. He knew. She turned around from freeing the slaves to stare at him. How was this possible? Had they given themselves away in the city? What went wrong?

"Don't look so surprised. We've known you were here since the moment you arrived. We were prepared for your attack."

And at that moment guards filed into the arena. There were so many of them.

They were surrounded. Kriff, kriff, kriff. They could never win this. Cornan, Thea, Dara and Deo now also jumped into the arena. They had to stand together. Ahsoka drew one of her swords. The others followed suit. Several of the guards pulled out their electrical whips. Not good. They were hard to fight against. One wrong move, you were hit, and you would go down.

"Stay clear of the whips!" Ahsoka said and then she charged. Her first objective was to disarm. She would not harm anyone without reason. Not anymore. She was not like the Empire. Also, she didn't want the unwanted attention. She caught several whips with her sword and pulled them back. But she'd forgotten how much stronger the Zygerrians were. This was gonna be hard.

Ahsoka bit through the electrical surges that went through her body. She could not go down. She damaged several whips, making them useless. She glanced around her for her friends. They were all holding up so far. Thank the Force.

Then Ahsoka looked at the King. He was seated in his special booth. Way too comfortable if it were up to her. There were several guards around him. She needed to get up there. Ahsoka jumped up towards his booth. The only reason she made it was the Force. She moved towards the King as fast as she could and held her sword at his neck.

"Nobody move!" Ahsoka almost screamed. It suddenly went quiet. Even the fighting in the arena stopped. "One move towards me or my team and your King dies," she said.

Yes, she just said she would not harm anyone without reason, but this was necessary. They couldn't win otherwise. But to Ahsoka's surprise, the King just started laughing. "Foolish girl. You have already lost. Even if you manage to kill me and the guards down there, you'll never save those slaves."

And suddenly all the guards around the King held up a stick. And Ahsoka immediately knew what they were for. Kriff! The collars! There were at least 7 of them. She would never make it in time. They would shock the prisoners to death!

Then all at once, the guards in the arena started moving again. And most of her team saw it coming, but Dara was too late. They got several whips around her and she went down. Cornan tried to get to her, but he got electrocuted too while trying.

Ahsoka saw it happening. They were gonna lose. Unless she let go of this act and use the Force. She took a deep breath and dropped her sword. The guards in the room looked at each other for a second before they advanced on her, but they didn't know what her goal was yet.

And in a split second, they were all pushed back against the wall. Ahsoka shed her robe and pulled her lightsabers of her belt. The King's eyes widened. It was obvious he knew what was happening. "Jedi!" he yelled. But before he could say anything more Ahsoka slammed his head to the back of the chair with all the power she had. He did not move after that.

Ahsoka jumped down back into the arena. She was immediately assaulted by several whips, but she reflected them with her lightsabers. She sent as many of them flying into the wall with the Force as she could.

Ahsoka turned to her teammates when she had the time for a small breather. "Get the prisoners free! I can handle this!"

They looked like they wanted to protest but decided against it when Ahsoka paid them no mind anymore. She was back to fighting them off. And she was doing a damn good job at it as well. They moved to the slaves and cut their collars off. It wasn't easy. They were made of strong steel, that was for sure. At least Ahsoka was buying them as much time as she could.

And Ahsoka was trying her best, but it was getting harder and harder not to harm them. She could not keep this up that way. Drastic measures were in order. One of the guards snuck up behind Ahsoka, but she sensed him. She stabbed one of her lightsabers behind her and impaled him. That seemed to create a shift on the arena floor.

It was a second's pause, but then all the guards charged again. They planned to overwhelm her, but she was trained to manage that. The moment they lashed out with the whips, she jumped up. They touched each other. And several more fell. When she made her landing, she slashed out with her lightsabers, decapitating several of them.

Meanwhile, more and more of the prisoners were free. Lorey and Jax joined Ahsoka back in the fight. The tide was slowly turning back in their favor. And Ahsoka was so glad for it. It didn't take long after that before all the guards were down. Either dead or unconscious.

"Let's get out of here!" Lorey said. They rounded up all the prisoners and were ready to move out.

Then Ahsoka felt something strange in the Force. A warning. She turned back around and stared right into the eyes of one of the Imperial officers. She now knew it was done for her.

The Empire would come for her.

=O=

They made it to the shuttle not long after that. They lead all the freed prisoners in and took off immediately. Some of the freed slaves went to Ahsoka as soon as they could. "Thank you, Master Jedi. Thank you for saving us," they said. Ahsoka just nodded but didn't say anything.

She wasn't happy. They know. The Empire knows. She'd hidden from them for almost 6 years, and now they knew. A dark thought came into her mind. What if she killed them before she left? They wouldn't have been able to tell the Empire. Ahsoka shook her head. No! she can't think like that. Never. Those thoughts belonged to the Dark Side. And she was already too close to that side today.

Ahsoka suddenly wondered if that was Anakin's fault. Had he unconsciously slipped small parts of the Dark Side in her training? Was she in danger of falling as well? She was afraid to think like that.

Lorey was the one to pull her out of her thoughts. "Ahsoka, are you okay? You seem stressed," the girl said.

Ahsoka gave her a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes and she was pretty sure it looked fake. "Just thinking," she managed to say.

"Let me guess. The Empire?" Lorey asked.

"They know. They'll come for me. I'm not safe anymore. I'm a danger to you all. I need to go back and hide."

"Don't you dare Ahsoka. Don't you dare. You do not get to think this way. We're all on the run from the Empire. We're all in danger. You are not shutting yourself off like that and you're not just leaving us behind," Lorey scolded her.

Ahsoka looked down. She did not want to admit that Lorey was right.

"We'll figure this out Ahsoka. Together. Don't you dare leave."

Ahsoka looked at Lorey, and she looked very serious. She sighed. "Alright Lorey. You convinced me. Together," she said. Though it wasn't the truth. She wasn't convinced at all. But it didn't matter right now. She needed to talk to Bail first anyway. He needed to know that she was compromised now.

=O=

They arrived back on Alderaan and there were people ready to take the prisoners under their wing.

Ahsoka immediately left to speak to Bail. She didn't even say anything to her teammates. Just walked out and straight into the palace. She asked one of the guards were Bail was.

He appeared to be in a meeting. So Ahsoka had to wait. She asked where the meeting was being held and then she made her way there. she waited behind the door. It felt like eternity before the meeting ended and Bail came out.

She stepped in front of him. "Senator Organa, sir, I need to talk to you."

"Ah, Ahsoka, you're back. How did the mission go?" he asked her as he motioned for her to walk with him. He has a busy schedule, so he needed to keep going.

Ahsoka fell into step next to him. "That's what I wanted to talk about. We succeeded, but not without complications."

"You seem serious. What were the complications?"

"Imperial officers were there. Probably the buyers of the prisoners that were gonna be sold. I had to use the Force and my lightsabers to get us out, and they saw. I'm sure of it."

Bail looked at her. The implication was clear. The Empire knew.

"They must've told the higher ups by now. I'm pretty sure they're already looking for me. I don't know if I can stay here."

"Don't be ridiculous Ahsoka. Your entire team is already on the Empire's agenda. We could really use your help here. I would understand if you left, but I hope you don't. Together we stand stronger," Bail said to her.

Ahsoka looked down. "I know that, sir. But I'm not just afraid of the Empire. I'm afraid of who they'll send after me."

Bail understood what she was getting at. It was widely known across the Galaxy who hunted the remaining Jedi. "Vader," he said hard enough for her to hear, but nobody else.

Ahsoka nodded. "I'm not ready to face him. Not yet."

Bail nodded. "We'll figure this out Ahsoka. For now, we should try not to worry. You had another successful mission. You should celebrate with your team. Go."

"Yes sir. Thank you for listening and understanding," she said as she bowed slightly. Force of habit. Then she walked away to join her teammates again. But she kept thinking about what was to come.

=O=

Bob was working in the Intelligence section on the Devastator. Intelligence had just gotten word that a Jedi had been sighted, and Bob was sent to inform the Commanding Officer of the star destroyer.

His reputation precedes him, and Bob was nervous he might not get out of this situation alive. Jedi were a sensitive topic to his CO, or so he'd heard. He made his way to the bridge where the figure stood by the viewport overlooking the galaxy. Bob slowly approached him.

"My Lord," he began, waiting for confirmation he'd been heard and had permission to speak. The only indication he got was a very slight tilt of the black mask in his direction. If Bob hadn't been looking for it, he would've missed it.

"There has been a confirmed Jedi sighting on Zygerria. Our officers on planet reported a Force user with 2 blue lightsabers aiding in the escape of slaves there," Bob said.

He was proud that his voice only broke two times during his report. If only it would be enough. The mask tilted further now, and Bob could feel a slightly uncomfortable pressure on his throat. He brought his hand up to his neck in reflex. A few seconds later the slight pressure disappeared.

"Have this information forwarded to the Grand Inquisitor with the command to hunt this Jedi down," his commander's voice boomed through the voice modulator.

"Yes, Lord Vader. We'll send word right away." Bob was dismissed when his Commanding Officer turned back towards the viewport.

Bob made his way out of the bridge as fast as he could. Some would say he ran, but he would deny that statement. At least he was still alive.

Darth Vader stood at the head of the command deck; arms crossed. He looked out into the galaxy. In the past 5 years many fleeing Jedi had been found and exterminated. It had become a little quiet, so for there to be a new one, and aiding the rebellion – if one could even call it that – was a welcoming surprise. Now it was up to his Inquisitors to exterminate this Jedi as well. He had other things to attend to.


Finally, Vader has made his entrance. Took him long enough if you ask me ;)

Yes, I know the Devastator wasn't canonically made for many years later, but this is canon divergence for a reason. Deal with it *throws up peace sign*.